Dr. Gerilyn Utter

So what I will do is I will bring someone, a friend, or get in touch with someone who has a clean record and that record's criminal as well as a psychiatric record.

You can't have any

what we call involuntary psychiatric commitments and get and purchase a gun.

So I will bring that person with me.

And even though I am the person who wants the gun, I can't purchase it because I'm a felon, I'm a convicted felon, or I have serious psychiatric issues.

So I accompany that individual and I go into that store with them.

And the person with the clean record or the person that doesn't have a criminal record

is the one that is facing the gun store owner.

And I'm with them saying, hey, I want that gun or I want that.

But really, I can't be the one to communicate or step up to the gun shop owner.

I have to be the one in the background, even though it's for me.

So a straw purchase is essentially an illegal purchase where you bring somebody else into the gun shop that does not have the criminal record.

They are the one who purchases the gun.

It's in their name.

Essentially, when they leave the gun store, they turn around and they give it to their buddy or the person who accompanied them.

because that's the person who really is going to be utilizing the gun.

I think to your point, Nancy, the fact when when folks come in together, that is something that tends to stick in gun owners name in their brains, because a lot of the times there's something called a straw purchase.

So when people are trying to come in and they have somebody with a clean record and they bring the person that's actually going to purchase the gun.

or that wants the gun, seeing people together usually raises a red flag because you're like, why are there two people here?

You're not somebody that may be equipped or trained or know what it is that you want or what you're buying.